On April 10, Lai, who is about to take office, announced the first wave of his ruling team.
He announced that former DPP chairman Zhuo Rongtai would be the head of his administrative body. Zhuo Rongtai is a disciple of Xie Changting, and is called "Senior Brother" by other Xie figures. He took over as party chairman when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was defeated in the 2018 midterm elections on the island, and helped Tsai Ing-wen, who resigned from the election, maintain the party situation.
In the later dispute over Tsai Ing-wen's nomination of Lai Qingde, Zhuo Rongtai remained neutral, but at that time, the DPP was "one-sided" in favor of Tsai Ing-wen, so Zhuo Rongtai's neutrality was tantamount to favoring Lai Qingde. Therefore, Zhuo Rongtai won the trust of Lai Qingde. In addition, Zhuo Rongtai lacks both personal qualifications and personal prestige. The reason why Lai Qingde used him as the first administrative head was because he might want to directly intervene in administrative affairs. Zhuo Rongtai is too mediocre, so it is considered easy to control.
Zhuo Rongtai Source: Taiwan's "United Daily News"
The first wave of the list also announced that Zheng Lijun will serve as the deputy of the administrative agency, Gong Mingxin will serve as the secretary general, and Chen Shikai will serve as the spokesperson. It was rumored before the election of the leader of the Taiwan region that Lai Qingde wanted to find Zheng Lijun as his deputy, but in the end, he may have been forced by the pressure of the United States and Tsai Ing-wen to find Xiao Meiqin. When Lai Qingde was elected party chairman, it was Zheng Lijun who helped him get the watch and complete the registration of his candidacy on his behalf, which shows that the two have a close relationship. It is also rumored that Lai Qingde wants to find Zheng Lijun to organize an administrative team, but Zheng's administrative qualifications are even more lacking, she was the head of the cultural department during Tsai Ing-wen's tenure, and was once slapped in public by an old artist because she was too ideological.
On April 12, Zhuo Rongtai announced the second wave of personnel appointments for the new administrative team, with the head of the Chinese department to be taken over by writer Ono (real name Li Yuan); the head of the education department will be Zheng Yingyao, president of Sun Yat-sen University; the head of the transportation department will be Li Mengyan, the former secretary general of the administrative agency; the head of the internal affairs department will be Liu Shifang, the former "disciple soldier" of Chen Ju, a former civil representative; and the head of the legal department will be Zheng Mingqian, chief prosecutor of the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office. However, once these candidates are announced, there are few positives and many criticisms.
For example, Ono, who used to be a cultural adviser to the Taipei City Government, also served as its elected director-general. At that time, Ke Wenzhe and Han Kuo-yu, who was running for election in Kaohsiung, maintained a tacit understanding of mutual support, but Ono went to the occasion of Han Kuo-yu's rival Chen Qimai to say that he supported Chen Qimai, which almost caused a split among Ke Han's supporters. Afterwards, Ono cried for his own defense, which was very ugly. In fact, Ono's political party is very green, especially because they have a cultural performance group called "Paper Windmill", which has been criticized by the outside world for receiving cultural subsidies from the DPP authorities. However, after it was announced that Ono was the head of the cultural department, he was attacked by some people in the green camp, who criticized Ono as a "Ke fan" and thought that Ono was not green enough.
Ono (Li Yuan) Source: Taiwan's "Business Times"
Another example is Zheng Mingqian, who has a deep relationship with Lai Qingde, and after he becomes the head of the judicial department, his current position will be taken over by Zhong Hexian, a prosecutor of the Tainan District Prosecutor's Office. Lin Yufeng, a social reporter on the island, pointed out that neither of them is a good person. In 2004, when Lai Qingde was still a representative of the People's Republic of China, he was beaten by three young people because of a driving dispute, and the prosecutor who undertook it at that time was Zheng Mingqian. Zheng Mingqian asked for heavy sentences for the three people, and in recent years, he also handled the cases of Lin Zimiao, the county magistrate of the Kuomintang in Yilan, and Gao Hongan, the mayor of the Hsinchu People's Party. Lin Zimiao was searched for her relatives by the prosecutor before the election, and Lin himself was taken away for an interview, and all the relevant pictures were leaked, but after more than ten hours of investigation, Lin was asked back without bail, indicating that there was no conclusive evidence, but it created an image of his guilt to the outside world. In the course of the investigation of Gao Hongan's case, which should be kept secret, all details were leaked, which had an irreparable impact on Gao Hongan's political life.
Zhong Hexian once stormed the Tainan City Council to arrest Li Quanjiao, the speaker of the council who was accused of bribery, and helped Lai Qingde refuse to enter the parliament for hundreds of days. Lin Yufeng said: Now that Lai Qingde's "nine-section judicial whip" has taken shape, he will either die or be injured if he throws it out. Lai Qingde's possession of this "judicial weapon" will certainly have a deterrent effect on the opposition forces.
In the security and defense system, Lai Qingde and Tsai Ing-wen have reached a consensus that Gu Lixiong, the current secretary general of the security department, will be the head of defense, and Gu's current position will be replaced by Wu Zhaoxie, the current head of the foreign affairs department, in order to maintain Tsai Ing-wen's foreign policy during her tenure. Some analysts pointed out that the United States has sent people to Taiwan several times to pressure Lai Qingde to continue to maintain Tsai Ing-wen's foreign line.
Gu Lixiong is a lawyer by training, and he has defended Chen Shui-bian's confidential fee case. Gu Lixiong once tried to represent the DPP in the Taipei City election, but in the end, the DPP gave Ko Wenzhe a chance. After Tsai Ing-wen was elected, she used Gu Lixiong very much, first sent him to liquidate the Kuomintang party property, then arranged for him to be in charge of finance, and later asked him to take over security affairs, and now he is used to take charge of defense work by a person who has never even been a soldier, which caused an uproar in the military.
Gu Lixiong's wife, Wang Meihua, was also reused by Tsai Ing-wen as the head of the economic department, without considering whether the professional background of the two children matched the department under their control. According to Taiwan media analysis, Gu Lixiong was asked to go to the defense department so that the military purchases from the United States during Tsai Ing-wen's tenure could continue. However, Guo Zhengliang, a former representative of the People's Republic of China, believes that Lai Qingde's use of Gu Lixiong is aimed at the military's ideological indoctrination work.
It is also rumored that Lin Jialong, the leader of the second largest faction in the DPP, communicated with Lai Qingde several times and finally agreed to serve as the head of the foreign affairs department, but Lin had no experience in foreign affairs. Lin has always been ambitious, and it is estimated that the endless problems in the foreign affairs department will suspend Lin Jialong's political future in advance. Even more depressed than Lin Jialong is probably the current deputy of the administrative agency, Zheng Wencan, who is the same "new trend" as Lai Qingde, because of academic problems and rumors of suspected acceptance of sexual entertainment, Zheng was directly ignored and had no arrangements for the time being. Lin Jialong and Zheng Wencan were both Lai Qingde's rivals, especially Zheng Wencan, who was trusted by Tsai Ing-wen, and it may also affect Lai Qingde's re-election in the future, so Lai Qingde "demolished the mine" in advance.
Lai Ching-te was elected with 40% of the votes, and the DPP also lost its qualification as the largest party in the legislature when "the three parties are not more than half." In this case, Lai Qingde should be more inclusive in forming an administrative team, such as finding a person with social prestige and no party affiliation to serve as the head of the administration, or forming a joint ruling team with a political party to win the support and cooperation of the legislature. However, the list of administrative teams announced by Lai Qingde is neither "open" nor "united," indicating that he has no intention of reconciling with those 60 percent on the island who do not support him.
Table Rongtai led part of the ruling team to appear Source: "Sing Tao Daily"
Lai Qingde said that he wants to build a "mobile innovation AI team" with positive actions and innovative thinking, but the people he announced have nothing to do with innovation, and they are nothing more than cronies in his small circle. The KMT calls its team "old, green and southern" ("south" refers to Lai's former Tainan city government team), not an innovation team, but a "retainer team" because there are traces of pressure from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Therefore, some commentators joked that it is not the "AI team" but the "AIT team".
In Lai Qingde's declared vision for the future of government, the focus is not on the issue of people's livelihood, but on the insistence on deepening the so-called "Taiwan independence" ideology that he adheres to. Zheng Lijun and Ono are shouldering the task of so-called "cultural transformation" and further carrying out "de-sinicization" and "cultural Taiwan independence". The so-called "cleansing people's hearts" has made the critics in the opposition feel even more creepy. Guo Zhengliang, a former representative of the People's Republic of China, believes that the top priority at present is to alleviate the cross-strait crisis and economic crisis, but Lai Qingde has these things in mind.
Lai Qingde's employment circle is really narrow, and even in the DPP, he did not make the best use of his talents, but cronyism, and he will repay him, and exclude all those who have offended him in the past and those who may affect him in the future. Therefore, even if we do not talk about the cross-strait crisis, the social division on the island caused by Lai Qingde in the future, and even the struggle within the DPP, are likely to be further intensified.
Author丨Xu Yi, special writer of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News
Editor丨Liu Liping, editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News
Typesetting丨Su Ruixue, Shenzhen Satellite TV direct news editor